FIFA World Cup 2006

[Righ]

So, I was wondering what my options were to be able to watch the World Cup on TV in America and whether I'd need to order some esoteric package. It turns out that between ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC every single game in the finals (that's 64) will be broadcast live. In high definition. Uninterrupted by commercials.

I've never heard of sports coverage this good. It's going to be magnificent.

http://media.espn.com/ESPNToday/2006/Mar_06/cup_sked.htm

[HaemishM]

Yeah, I was surprised as hell by this as well. We don't usually get any coverage over here, unless it's Mexican socceer. Methinks my Tivo will be busy.

[WayAbvPar]

The US World Cup coverage has been pretty good the past 2 Cups IIRC. I am really excited, but the time difference and USA's placement in the Group of Death are mitigating it somewhat. At least when it was in Korea/Japan I could get up in the middle of the night and watch; now I will have to TiVo the games and find some way of avoiding hearing the results until I get home to watch. I may have to erect some sort of mechanical ambush at the entrance to my cube to keep people at bay on game day.

Any predictions? Brazil and Germany are gonna be tough. England is a bit overrated I fear (which is too bad, since I root for them after the US). Portugal, Spain, Italy and Holland are always good, but they always seem to step on their genitalia at some point too. Czech Republic scares me to death as a US fan. France has Henry and some talent, but aren't as good as their 1998 squad by any stretch.

Who have I forgotten? African sides won't do much, nor will the far Asians. Mexico is decent, but not dangerous. Argentina? Don't know much about them.

[Righ]

This time round they're up from 0 games in HD to all of them. That rocks (also it says something about HD adoption too, I guess). The promise to show each half of every game uninterrupted by commercials is also new - although they did so fairly often last time.

England are going down to Sweden. As a Scot, I get a perverse pleasure in watching England suffer (its a de rigeur part of having multiple national teams in one country) especially to a minnow of a team. In reality, I do like it when England do well - this just isn't going to be their year to go the whole distance. It's a shame about Sweden's injury run however - I don't think they'll make it against Paraguay, which could spell their demise and England's saviour.

The USA group is seriously tough - I'll be rooting for them though. Could have been worse, at least its not the Netherlands/Argentina group. You'd think that the real danger here would be the Czech Republic and that Italy would be in a commanding position to take the first place. However Ghana look really really strong this year, and every match is going to be crucial. But go in with the right attitude here - the USA has the strongest team they've ever fielded, and a few poor days aside, they've been good in the run up to the finals.

The Netherlands, Argentina, Cote d'Ivoire, Serbia (and Montenegro... for now) group is the one that's anybody's guess. The smart money won't even bet here. However, there's a good chance the winner of the World Cup will come from this group. Trying to place the runner up in Brazil's group is impossible too.

Germany are going to have to dig very deep to win the cup at home this year. They have had some seriously shaky performances lately, and depsite having what looks like a relatively okay group, no match against Poland or Ecuador is going to be a walk in the park. Likewise, Spain look to be the best team in their group, but nothing's sure against what are solid teams there too. It would be highly surprising if Germany and Spain didn't advance, but those are certainly groups capable of creating an upset.

Mexico and Portugal should be okay, so should France and Korea. All told, I'm kind of hoping for a massive comback by de Oranje. :)

[Strazos]

I hear there's going to be lots of prostitutes in Germany during the Cup run.

[Righ]

You reckon? I thought they'd go on holiday. There's always lots of prostitutes in Germany - its legal, so it's a huge industry that has to pay taxes. However, they are going to converge on the host cities and there will presumably be a price war. You'll be able to get a lot more than 90 minutes of action from sex workers for the money you'd have to pay for a single match ticket on the street.

I like Sham 69's take on a Cup song.

[HaemishM]

I know absolutely nothing about World Cup teams, so am grateful for any insight that can be given. Once the USA is eliminated, I'll likely root for some flavor of Euro team, England or Germany or something.

[CmdrSlack]

Can anyone 'splain to me how the US team made it, but there's no Irish team?

I have no idea how the teams that "make it" this far get there and am too lazy to look it up.

EDIT -- I presume there's qualifiers, etc.  Is the Irish team just that bad lately or is there some kind of other reason?

[Righ]

Okay, I'll try. There are qualifying matches prior to "the World Cup". What we're looking forward to now are the finals of something that's taken two years of games to get to. To keep the finals international rather than dominated by European and South American teams and to make the qualification matches workable, the world is split into regions, and a set number of places in the finals are given to each region. The teams in that region play a set of league groups.

There are 14 places in the World Cup finals earmarked for Europe. Germany get one as the host nation. There are eight groups for Europe, and the winner of each group goes to the finals. The two runners up from the eight groups that have the highest number of points also go through. The remaining six runners up then play off for the final three places. Ireland came fourth in their group after France, Switzerland and Israel. Scotland came third to Italy and Norway. Wales placed fifth in the group that England won and Northern Ireland came fourth in.

The CONCANAF (North American, Central American and Caribbean) region has 3.5 places for the finals. The teams are split into three leagues, and the top two go to a final league, of which the top three in that league then advance to the finals. The fourth team in that league faces the fifth placed Asian team in a playoff match (hence 3.5 places). There's no reason why the USA shouldn't be in every World Cup final unless they do something like bundle the Americas regions together. Of course, you'd expect Canada to be able to get their act together too...

More significant than Ireland, the region system resulted in no Slovakia and no Russia. Poor old Oceania has only a half place for the finals and the winner (Australia) has to play the fifth placed South American team (Uruguay) to qualify.

http://www.mapsofworld.com/2006-fifa-world-cup/overall-zonal-group-standings.html

[HaemishM]

The Irish were drunk?

[Righ]

Heh. Ireland lost to France 1-0. That was enough to put them out in a group in which every other game between the top four teams was a draw. It's the nature of the World Cup that the fortunes of good teams can come down to an off night (perhaps even for another team in their group), an unusual draw, an injury, etc.

[CmdrSlack]

I need to pay better attention to international sports news.  It'd have been nice to see Ireland play, even if they got beaten by France.  I was spending a summer in Dublin in '02, and had a great time hanging out with the barristers I knew at Chief O'Neil's watching the matches on the big screen.  Drunk men in wigs and robes are rather humorous for some reason.  Apparently the ROI's version of a speedy trial includes, "Unless Ireland is playing Germany in World Cup finals," because the entire court system shut down, and the majority of it was there watching.

[Righ]

The World Cup will paralyse business (and courts) in England, in just about every European nation that made the finals. The more astute managers will bring in TV sets and let the staff watch while they do their jobs - its better than the huge absences they would get otherwise. I was doing a gig at a major US investment bank in London a couple of cups back and couldn't find anybody in the server group - there wasn't even an England match on. Of course, all the other games in your group count, so I found the whole server group round the corner at the local bar.

Haemish, rather than wibble about each team, I'll point you to BBC Sport's good summaries - just click on "team guide" to find out more about them.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/world_cup_2006/teams/default.stm

Let the guesses begin...

Group A: Poland, Germany
Group B: England, Sweden
Group C: Holland, Argentina
Group D: Portugal, Mexico
Group E: Italy, USA
Group F: Brazil, Croatia
Group G: France, Korea
Group H: Spain, Ukraine

Which makes it:

Poland v Sweden
Holland v Mexico
England v Germany
Portugal v Argentina
Italy v Croatia
France v Ukraine
Brazil v USA
Spain v Korea

Then:

Sweden v Holland
Italy v France
England v Argentina
Brazil v Spain

And:

Holland v Italy
England v Brazil

Tip Brazil to win (again) but hope for Holland. All complete guess work - anything could happen. Germany might save some goals for a change, win their group and put out Sweden. An African team might make the second round due to other teams' misfortunes. We'll know after around 100 hours of great football.

[WayAbvPar]

Great link Righ!

First Round-

Group A- Germany, Poland
Group B- England, Sweden
Group C- Argentina, Holland
Group D- Portugal, Mexico
Group E- Czech Republic, Italy
Group F- Brazil, Croatia
Group G- France, Switzerland
Group H- Spain, Ukraine

Possible upsets to make 2nd round- USA, Australia, South Korea, MAYBE Ecuador.

[Jobu]

I'm a longtime England fan personally, so I'll be rooting for the old St. George Cross next week. They can do it, if they don't crumple under the expectations and press of their own country. The football press in England is NAAASTY. What's great is I have two Swedish coworkers, so we're already ratcheting up the rivalry.

Realistically, Brazil will win. Their team is just too stunning this year. Let's hope for another real final this time, instead of shootouts. And I have a strange soft-spot for Holland, because I love the color orange. I think they could pull a big upset and maybe make it to the final. Korea are also looking very bright (those guys can RUN). I also think USA will get out of the group stages. Either them or Ivory Coast. Italy is going down!

I'm so FREAKING PUMPED! HD Coverage, 64 games, DVR... oh man. My wife is already giving me stink-eye.



edit: Here's a cool site I've been reading during the buildup. http://www.worldcupblog.org/
Blogs for each team, which catch all the zany stuff out there. Such as Peter Crouch breakdancing and Columbia's keeper scoring the winner against Poland. Oops. Jerzy Dudek looking a lot better now, isn't he?

[Righ]

Nice little site, thanks. I've seen that clip before - Glasgow Celtic's sensational Artur Boruc is the man they need in goal.

[Jobu]

I also think USA will get out of the group stages. Either them or Ivory Coast. Italy is going down!

I'm a tool, I meant Ghana. Uh-duuuuuh.

[Paelos]

Group A - Germany, Ecuador - if Germany can't even finish in the top half of this group at home, it'll be chaos.
Group B - England, Paraguay - Paraguay's a longshot, England's probably not going to fold over like many hope, Sweden is hurt.
Group C - Argentina, Netherlands - they are the odds on favorites
Group D - Mexico, Portugal - again, odds on
Group E - Italy, Czech - the US is overmatched in this group, it's just a bad draw.
Group F - Brazil, Japan - I might as well have picked Brazil and "those other guys"
Group G - France, South Korea - Easily the biggest cakewalk group for a team like France, damn frogs.
Group H - Spain, Saudi Arabia - Spain will dominate, Saudi's will survive.

[Strazos]

Brazil vs USA? Ouch, that's just bad luck.

[Numtini]

All games without commercials has been the standard here in the US since 94 as far as I know.

As far as why the US is there instead of Ireland? Well, there is all the regional stuff, but honestly the US is a lot better team.

I'm not optomistic about our group, but we certainly have a chance. I'm taking the US matchdays off and tivo'ing everything else. It was juggling VHS tapes for the 98 cup that convinced me to get a PVR (at the time a DISHPlayer) for the 99 WWC.

[Righ]

IIRC EPSN did no commercials, the network did not. Could be faulty memory however.

Watch the US team on the run up to the finals here:

http://studio90.ussoccer.com/

[eldaec]

Brazil and England probably have the best squads, but I expect both to fold due to having too many undroppable players. In England's case probably in whichever round Rooney is rushed back into the team too early (He currently has a broken foot).

As for the US, I'd guess they will make 2nd in the group, and then lose to Brazil. They could well make first or slip to third though, Italy are in a bit of a mess following the various scandals; Czech Republic are overrated; while the US team is impossible to gauge because they haven't played enough games against European opposition.

It's really hard to pick a winner, though I'd be surprised if it's not a European side, European sides always win when it's held in Europe. So you'd have to look to one of Holland, Germany (only because they are hosting), or England, with Italy as an outsider if they get their shit together in the early matches.

Also, how the hell do you watch football with commercials?

Cricket I can understand, but football?

[Jobu]

Just went to the local soccer shop and picked up my England home jersey. 80 fucking bucks!! At least I won't feel like such a douche now. Last time I had to wear my Premiership club jerseys instead. But shit... 80 bucks. The ORANJE!!! dutch jerseys were like 45. Oof.

On a related topic, I read an article about the sponsors and merchandising (can't dig up the link), but Nike said they sell something like 3 times as many Mexico kits in the US compared to the US stuff. Which is oddly timed, as I pulled out a Walmart advertisement in the mail the other day with Team Mexico schwag on the cover. I don't even think they had any USA stuff in it, anywhere.

[Numtini]

Also, how the hell do you watch football with commercials?

Back in the days of the NASL, they would just cut away from the action. (Yes, it's insane.)

[WayAbvPar]

Well, the US got one Saturday game, so I am going to try to make the most of it. Plan to grab a few friends at watch the game at Sport in Seattle. Top notch food, and plasma TVs everywhere you look (it is pretty amazing). Game starts at noon- I am going to try to get there around 10:30 or so to reserve some seats. May give them a call to see if we can have reservations.

If you find yourself in the Seattle area on June 17th, come on by!

[NiX]

Just went to the local soccer shop and picked up my England home jersey. 80 fucking bucks!!

80 is nothing. Try being a hockey fan.

This sunday a bunch of EB people are going to watch the Portugal game. Best put on my drinking hat.

[WayAbvPar]

Well, the US got one Saturday game, so I am going to try to make the most of it. Plan to grab a few friends at watch the game at Sport in Seattle. Top notch food, and plasma TVs everywhere you look (it is pretty amazing). Game starts at noon- I am going to try to get there around 10:30 or so to reserve some seats. May give them a call to see if we can have reservations.

If you find yourself in the Seattle area on June 17th, come on by!

Online reservations are available. 6 max, so I have at least one table. Anyone else that wants to join in, set up some reservations. Then fly in and party with me!

[Righ]

Can't really be spending $400 a seat for flights this month, but thanks for the offer. :)

[Jobu]

Looks like Rooney's foot is healed up enough to send him back to Germany. Holy shit that is awesome news!

And Ballack is out for the opener. Better hope he gets better when they have to play Poland, or it's bye-bye Germany! At least it's not a long trip home. hehe

Djibril Cisse also broke his tibia (shin bone) in the French warmup against China, so he's out. What a shame, he overcame so much to play again, and he's so exciting to watch... even if he's a total ballhog.

[WayAbvPar]

So, I did what any red-blooded gamer would do- went out and bought FIFA World Cup 2006 for my X-Box. Only $30 at Best Buy. It is pretty damned hard, but so far it is a lot of fun. Helping me learn who to watch on the non-American sides as well.

[Hoax]

I've played it a ton on PS2 it is a massive improvement over 2002.  There are a few glaring flaws:

-chip shots can be used on a breakway to auto-goal.
-I miss the arrows indicating where my passing target is
-The set pieces are no damn near immpossible if you haven't played the game a shitton, there is almost 0 indication of where your corner or even worse free kick will go
-The music has been beefed up but still sucks for the most part.  They tried to get multi-cultural but there is way too much crappy German and English music and not enough crazy tracks from Africa/Asia.
-There are not nearly enough historic jerseys, the variety of unlockable balls are a nice touch but they really need to be brighter

Overall the gameplay is solid, keeper AI is about 100 times better then before, the crossing system is much improved.  I do miss the old right analog give and go passing.  The right stick now controls a freestyle move system thing which hasn't proven to be  terribly useful so far.  The only big problem is the correctable double tap issue (if you hit a button right before gaining possession you perform that action) and the occasional stupidity on the part of your fellow offensive players.  Sometimes we just can't get them to go on a run to save our lives.

[sigil]

I use the freestyle moves to buy time  to get a run going or to get a little space for crosses.

 A freestyle combo followed by a burst of speed from someone like Thierry Henry is just plain nasty. But even the best player will get dispossessed if you run  near a defender with the ball off your foot.


Focusing on the US, I've been playing them in a 4-5-1 or a 4-1-2-1-2, depending on how aggressive my opponent is. The US does well with a wing play strategy on offense with O'Brien on one side and Convey on the other. With the 5 midfielders, Dempsey works well , as does Donovan. Dempsey feels a bit off. He should handle dribbling better than he does in the game.

Tn the other set it's usually a footrace, or an offsides  party if my timing is off. It's all about angles and lines of  vision. If you get a good angle, you can send a throughball in that leads to a breakaway. After some practice, that usually means  instant goal.

[Righ]

I just bought it for PSP:

"To start, you must update the
 system software.

                      o Back"

I guess its been too long since I used the PSP.

[Rasix]

I just bought it for PSP:

"To start, you must update the
 system software.

                      o Back"

I guess its been too long since I used the PSP.

Pretty common for any new title.  They have to stay one step ahead of the filthy pirates!

I also have it for the PSP.  Fun game.  My first season was crazy: no losses but something like 8 ties.  I scored an obscene amount of goals with Rooney.

[Jobu]

I much prefer the gameplay in the Winning Eleven series. But I cannot stand their production values. It's just lame having to play as Manchester Red or North London instead of Man. U and Arsenal. The FIFA 2006 is much, much better than previous offerings, but I still loathe the AI of your teammates. They just will not pounce on a loose ball, and as mentioned it's such a chore to get them to make runs behind the defensive line.

Anyone ever played Football Manager? Is it any fun? An English teammate of mine keeps telling me I should try it out.


And back on topic... super secret video of Italy training.